Reem Alabali Radovan | |
|---|---|
 Radovan in 2025 | |
| Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development | |
| Assumed office 6 May 2025 | |
| Chancellor | Friedrich Merz |
| Preceded by | Svenja Schulze |
| Minister of State for Migration, Refugees and Integration | |
| In office 8 December 2021 – 6 May 2025 | |
| Chancellor | Olaf Scholz |
| Preceded by | Annette Widmann-Mauz |
| Succeeded by | Natalie Pawlik |
| Member of theBundestag forSchwerin – Ludwigslust-Parchim I – Nordwestmecklenburg I | |
| In office 26 October 2021 – 25 March 2025 | |
| Preceded by | Dietrich Monstadt |
| Succeeded by | Leif-Erik Holm |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Reem Al-Abali (1990-05-01)1 May 1990 (age 35) |
| Citizenship | Germany |
| Political party | SPD (since 2021) |
| Spouse | Denis Radovan |
| Children | 1 |
| Alma mater | Free University of Berlin |
Reem Alabali Radovan (Arabic:ريم العبلي,German pronunciation:[ˈʁiːmalaˈbaːliˈʁaːdovaːn];[1] born 1 May 1990) is a German politician of theSocial Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as theMinister for Economic Cooperation and Development in thegovernment ofChancellorFriedrich Merz since May 2025.[2]
Radovan has been aMember of the Bundestag since 2021.[2] In addition to her parliamentary work, she served asMinister of State at theChancellery andFederal Commissioner for Migration, Refugees, and Integration inChancellorOlaf Scholz'scabinet from 2021 to 2025. Together withMuhanad Al-Halak, she was the first person ofIraqi descent in the Bundestag,[3] and individually, she is both the first person of Assyrian descent in the parliament and the youngest member of theMerz cabinet.[4][5]
Radovan was born inMoscow in 1990 to IraqiAssyrian parents[6][7] ofChaldean Catholic religious background.[8][9][10] Her parents opposed the government ofSaddam Hussein, and had moved to theSoviet Union in the 1980s to study engineering. Her father was a fighter of thePeshmerga,[11][12] and her paternal grandfather, Muhammad Salih Alabali, was an Iraqi resistance leader who had been executed by theBa'athist government.[3][13] In 1996, after a brief stop in theKurdistan Region of Iraq,[14][15] the family sought, and received asylum in Germany, settling inMecklenburg-Vorpommern.[16][17][6]
Radovan completed her school education at the Gymnasium Fridericianum Schwerin. From her parent's involvement withIraqi politics, Radovan was inspired to pursuepolitical science[18] and graduated with a bachelor's degree from theFree University of Berlin and obtained a master's degree program (distance learning) in Sustainable Development Cooperation at theTechnical University of Kaiserslautern.[19]
From June 2012 to July 2014, she worked as a technical staff member at the German Orient Institute and was employed in the field ofeconomic development at the Near and Middle East Association in Berlin — initially as an assistant, later as a country officer.[7][20]
In May 2015, she returned to Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and worked at the Office for Migration and Refugee Affairs of the State Office for Internal Administration of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, specifically at the initial reception center for refugees inNostorf[11][12] — where she herself had been received with her parents in 1996.[10] It was during her time there that she became an active member of theSocial Democratic Party of Germany in theSchwerin – Ludwigslust-Parchim I – Nordwestmecklenburg I district.[3]
In 2020, Radovan was appointed Commissioner for integration of theMecklenburg-Western Pomerania state government, succeeding Dagmar Kaselitz who resigned the previous year.[17][8] She became an official member of the SPD in 2021.
For the2021 German federal election, Radovan was elected in the constituency ofSchwerin – Ludwigslust-Parchim I – Nordwestmecklenburg I,[21][22] defeating incumbentDietrich Monstadt of theCDU.[23][24] She won with the most first-past-the post votes in the election.[25]
Within her parliamentary group, Radovan belongs to theParliamentary Left, a left-wing movement.[26]
On 8 December 2021, theScholz cabinet appointed Radovan as Federal Commissioner for Migration, Refugees and Integration with the rank of aMinister of State in theFederal Chancellery.[7][27][28] From 23 February 2022, she additionally served as the Federal Government Commissioner for Anti-Racism, being the first commissioner to hold the post.[29] In 2024, Radovan supported a bill ending a ban ondual-nationality to ease migration andnaturalization efforts in Germany proposed by Scholz.[6][30]
Between April 13th and 14th 2024, Radovan was elected to the position of Deputy State Chairwoman of the SPD inMecklenburg-Western Pomerania.[31] Ahead of the2025 German federal election,[32] Radovan was unanimously nominated by the SPD for the candidacy.[25] She was the topcandidate for the SPD on the party'sstate list inMecklenburg-Vorpommern,[33][9] narrowly being chosen overFrank Junge.[34][4][35]
In the negotiations to form aGrand Coalition between the Christian Democrats (CDU together with the Bavarian CSU) under the leadership ofFriedrich Merz and theSocial Democratic Party (SPD) following the2025 German elections, Radovan was part of the SPD delegation in the working group on domestic policy, legal affairs, migration and integration, led byGünter Krings,Andrea Lindholz andDirk Wiese.[36][37]
In May 2025, Radovan was elected to the position ofFederal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development.[38][39] She replaced SPD memberSvenja Schulze when taking over the position.[40][41]
In July, she visitedSouth Africa to discusseconomic relations between them and Germany, as well as to attend the2025 G20 Johannesburg summit.[42] She has used her position to prioritize building alliances with theGlobal South to combat crises.[43]
Radovan speaks fluentGerman,Arabic,Assyrian Neo-Aramaic,[3][11] andEnglish;[17] from her years in Russia, her native language isRussian (though she has since forgotten it[11]), and she studiedclassical languages while in grade school.[19] Radovan recognizes her ancestry from Iraq, and after her electoral victory, many Iraqis celebrated on social media.[13]
Radovan is married to professional boxerDenis Radovan, whose family also fled to Germany,[8] and she likes to box in her spare time.[47][10][15] In 2023, she gave birth to her first child.[48] In June 2025, Radovan decided to drop the hyphen in her last name after a law for double names passed earlier that year.[49] She currently resides inSchwerin[10] and has two younger siblings.[14]
In Germany, a "Peshmerga girl" from Iraqi Kurdistan, Reem Alabali-Radovan, of Assyrian-Chaldean origin, a member of the Social Democratic Party, has been appointed State Secretary for Migration, Refugees and Integration in the new German coalition government.
Nun soll sie Ministerin für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung werden.[She is now set to become Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development.]
Media related toReem Alabali Radovan at Wikimedia CommonsMerz cabinet (since 6 May 2025) | ||
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